Posted on 03/05/2011 4:10:31 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The parents of a terminally ill Windsor, Ont., baby are being represented by a prominent U.S. lawyer who has ties to Sarah Palin.
CeCe Heil is connected to a Washington law firm, which has fought for right-wing Christian causes throughout the United States.
Heil said she hopes to find a hospital in the U.S. that will agree to care for Joseph Maraachli, who has been on life support for months at a hospital in London, Ont., due to a fatal neurological disease.
Doctors want to remove his breathing tube, and a judge has sided with them, but the family of the 13-month-old boy wants a tracheotomy performed so he can be taken home to die.
Palin supported Heil in her unsuccessful bid to represent the Republicans in the 5th Congressional District Congress in Tennessee in August 2010. The former Alaska governor and candidate for vice-president described the Nashville attorney, who has sought to become a member of Congress, as a "tough mama grizzly."
The Canadian lawyer who had been representing the family announced earlier in the week that he was no longer doing so. No explanation was offered, but there was speculation it had something to do with the decision on whether to appeal a Feb. 17 decision by a London judge that paved the way for Baby Joseph to be removed from life support.
The Maraachli family has received support from the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, a Canadian group, and from a number of U.S. pro-life groups.
Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, told the website LifeNews.com that his organization is prepared to transport Baby Joseph and his family to a U.S. hospital if the American Center for Law and Justice can find one that will take the little boy and do the tracheotomy procedure his parents want.
“Priests for Life and other pro-life and pro-family organizations have been negotiating with hospitals across the United States for more than a week to have them agree to admit Baby Joseph,” he told LifeNews.com.
Also offering his support this weekend will be Bobby Schindler, who is flying to London from Florida. His sister, Terri Schiavo, was at the centre of a much-publicized, end-of-life battle in the U.S. five years ago.
“We’ll be joining the good people of Canada, and just doing what we can to show support for this family and let them know we’re behind them, and we’ll do what we can,” Schindler told CBC News.
He said Maraachlis should be allowed “to care for their baby properly and not be forced to have to end his life this way.”
The London Health Sciences Centre has said it is willing to pay to transfer Baby Joseph home on a breathing machine. Once home, the baby would be placed in the arms of his family before the machine is withdrawn. The family has refused that offer.
Ping!
>> right-wing Christian causes throughout the United States.
What exactly is a “right-wing” Christian cause? Saving babies?
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***He said Maraachlis should be allowed “to care for their baby properly and not be forced to have to end his life this way.”***
He’s right! No doctor and no hospital has the right to end a life.
When my daughter was four, she had a tracheotomy. The doctor said she was going to die. She is now the mother of her own daughter. Only God knows the future, hospitals (and Obama) just want to save money,
Man, ya gotta watch those doctors and hospitals!
They’ll kill ya if’n ya ain’t payin attenshun!
Prayers for all concerned.
Why should the taxpayer have to pay for a needless procedure that will not halt the inevitable?
My sympathies are with the parents, but if the child has been on a ventilator for a long time, he will likely die within minutes of having the vent removed; trach or not.
Like it or not, the Canadian system is socialized single-payer healthcare. There is no point to a trach, and no reason for the taxpayers to pay for it.
And your point is...?
The parents' point is that they, NOT the state, have the right to guide their son's future, however short that may be.
All reports state that the parents know full well what they will experience in taking home a child with a trach. An elder sister of Baby Joseph suffered from the same condition. She was given a trach and lived for several months at home with the parents, before she died.
Why did Canadian doctors permit a trach for the elder sister, but won't for Baby Joseph?
She is about as “NOT GUILTY” as it's possible to be:
“CeCe Heil is connected to a Washington law firm, which has fought for right-wing Christian causes”
I’m so sick of being called “right-wing” just for believing in God, our constitution, honor and decency.
Also, are there “left-wing Christian causes”? I don’t think so. Or is the writer using right-wing and Christian as synonyms? No matter.
Just as a reminder, 2012 has nothing to do with Canada. Baby Joseph is a Canadian in a Canadian hospital. I can’t imagine what a US lawyer can do in this case...
You are quite right. Another point is that baby Joseph doesn’t have any coverage in the US and given the decision of the Ontario judge he won’t get one. His parents do not propose to pay for this care. So somebody will have to pick up the tab. It will be either the taxpayer or the US patients who will have to bear the costs of baby Joseph’s hospitalization in the US...
I don’t see how this is justified.
Yes, and the same principle applies to MANY cases here in the USA.
I am ALL for anyone being able to have any healthcare procedure that they can pay for, but if it is paid by the taxpayer, it has to be weighed by the benefit to the patient versus the cost.
Harsh and sometimes cold, but necessary. We CANNOT pay for unlimited care for all.
I feel terrible for these parents, but a needless procedure paid for by the taxpayers is just not the answer.
BREAKING: Baby Joseph is home: defies critics by breathing completely on his own
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